Eulogy for Ireland

by Declan Kiely

03/17/2015

***

Me,
Shrouded in green, white, and orange

I wake up
tossing up electric blankets
in my single-bed nook

Morning shook,
consumed by a fiery torrent
as I consume rock-hard porridge

That ever familiar sight of orange

crescendoing like new sunrise
to sever our commonwealth ties
Becoming the light to eradicate industrial darkness
just north of our heads

At least that’s what our leaders said

We fight for the people
sprouting from hairs of the motherland,
the old country

the place the old fellows reminisce about
at the back street,
hole in the wall,
sub-par pubs

We binge on
endless Guinness by the pint
The black lager gives us might
The Irish are strong
That’s why there’s no Guinness Light

That dove-wing white

the calcimined center stripe

Signifying the peace after war
Yet covering up our war on peace
Youths’ minds struggling between right and wrong
Until we remember the oath we must keep

Upon pain of death our boots strike down
Molotov fire scorches the ground
And for every redcoat we make redder
We get another pint

It tastes like brainwashed victory

bitter,

like the overdone roots of my royalty

flushed

That green

lush

Soft beauty brushed on rolling hills
chilled, never above 70

70 nails,
carefully placed in our fake army bombs
We say a prayer of psalms
And wire up the lord’s work in the calm

We take pride in the storm that follows,
Drunk off our victory after a few swallows
Our minds exploded along with that bomb

And the headlines brought realization back
We are weighed down by the guilt of our pact

four killed in terror attack,

Shrapnel-riddled dreams,
severed in broken heart-strings
as harp strings play funeral dirges

dirt covered corpses,
buried under super-natural forces
We the rebel stereotype,
Question our right,
To live after causing our people so much strife
In our misguided fight

We pray for deliverance from our tortured life

In The Name of the Father,

bless green grass fields,

bless lush, rolling hills

bless those who perish in Emerald Isles

Funeral shrouded, in green, white, and orange.


Originally published in This Land, Vol. 6, Issue 5, March 1, 2015.